Hard-working folks determined to build a future

Greensburg, Kan., is made up of people with good, solid values who are working hard to get through a tough time.

Emilie Arkin

The people in Greensburg have a certain grit about them. Even in their darkest days as their city lay in ruins after it was leveled by a tornado, the population busily worked through the rubble.

That, said resident Josh Dellenbach, is just the type of people they are.

Far from backwoods, Dellenbach said the community is filled with “good people,” the type who work hard for what they have and continue working hard, even when they become wealthy.

“You won’t seeing (them) sitting around waiting for someone else to take care of things for them,” Dellenbach said.

People here aren’t born with a silver spoon in their mouth, he said.

Greensburg Mayor Lonnie McCollum said the town’s strength is inagriculture industry, but the town of 1,400 is also home to oilfields. And government is the biggest employer in the county seat.But most of those jobs have been wiped out.

Still, the residents drive on to get things done.

“People want to make sure they get their utility bill paid. That’s just the way these people are,” McCollum said. “They don’t have a home, but they want to make sure they’ve met their obligations. They’re fair, honest people.”

The tornado didn’t spare one church in the faith-based community, McCollum said. But a toppled building didn’t stop people from gathering at the corner of the First Baptist Church complex this week to ring the church’s bell.

Former resident Mackenzie Lehman, 12, described Greensburg as “old school.”

“I even had some of my mom’s old teachers,” she said. “It’s just different from other towns.”

That down-home quality — everyone knows everyone, she said — will make the girl always think of Greensburg as home.

These folks just can’t be found in any old city these days,McCollum said.

“The people here have old values and use the old way of thinking,” he said, adding that he thinks those values can carry over, even with a newly constructed backdrop.